Hey Bill. Great question. Christianity is definitely not a white man’s religion. Many have assumed that it is because of the way the Bible was used as a tool of oppression by slave holders during slavery in America.
One helpful way to combat this false narrative is to highlight that many early church fathers like Athanasius and Augustine were African.

Hi, @Mr.Horton! Very good question… By ‘pre-slavery’, I’m assuming you’re meaning pre- trans-Atlantic slave trade instituted by the Europeans? So Christianity on the African continent from before 1500 or so…?

It’s probably best to start with the early church there in Egypt and it’s influence that spread from there. One of the first converts was the eunuch from Ethiopia, and like Lisa suggested in her answer (that @Lakshmismehta helpfully linked!), both Athanasius (Egyptian) and Augustine (Algerian) were from the continent.

Thanks for posting this topic. I have many family members that think Christianity is a white mans religion. I’ve done my best to disprove that ideology. I’ll be touching base with the same family members in the next couple of weeks, so the resources mentioned in this post will hopefully come in handy when we enter into discussion again.

Thanks for highlighting the historical perspective to the topic. It appears appealing, most especially because it is easier to contextualize the gospel in Africa when natives are given a reason to believe that right at the inception of the church beside the early church fathers.